Ants: A New Alliance Outtake
by Obsessedtwibrarian
Summary: A tribute to fathers on Father's Day. An intimate moment between Jake and his son, Caleb.


**AUTHOR'S NOTE: ** Before reading this one shot, you need to read _A New Alliance_ first. I loved my original character, Caleb, so much that I just had to write a story about him as a small child. This was written for one of Tricky Raven's Father's Day contests.

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_**Ants**_

Bella smiled as she licked a stray blob of cake batter from her finger. It was the perfect Saturday. The house held a serene stillness that felt both odd and wonderful at the same time. Controlled chaos usually ruled the day in the Black household, but with Will on a sleepover at Levi Uley's house, and Carlie at soccer camp for the day, and Jake entertaining Caleb while she cooked, things were pretty quiet.

_Wait. Quiet? Uh oh. _

Bella tiptoed to the entrance of the living room and peeked in. Jake was on the sofa reading his tablet, and Caleb…

His toys were in the floor, but there was no sign of that mischievous and miniature clone of her husband.

"Jake. Where's Caleb?"

He looked up in surprise and swept his dark eyes over the room. "Aww, shit. He was just here. I swear!"

Instead of getting angry, Bella chuckled softly. They'd both played the You-Were-Supposed-To-Be-Watching-Him game since he'd been born. Only lately had they finally admitted that neither one of them could keep track of the slippery little snake that was their youngest son.

Jake sighed and laid his tablet on the sofa cushion. "He's probably somewhere digging a hole to China."

Bella snickered. "Check my flower beds."

Jake snapped his fingers at her and grinned. "I'm on the case."

She smiled as she watched him hurriedly poke his feet into his boots and head out the front door. She'd once thought that he'd never be more beautiful than the day she'd married him, but watching him father their three children had proven her wrong. There was nothing more attractive than a man who loved his kids as deeply as Jake did. Her love for him grew with every kiss he delivered to Caleb's forehead, with every bear hug he gave Carlie, and with every patient word of encouragement he offered to Will.

She returned to the kitchen and sighed. With hands on her hips, she debated what to do next, all the while wondering where her little explorer had gotten off to, and whether Jake would find him before dinner. She finally decided that the cake could wait. It would be more fun to join the hunt. Maybe this time she'd be the first one to find him. Jake always beat her at the Finding-Caleb-First game and that was getting a little old. Bella was his mother after all. She should have some sort of maternal instinct for that, shouldn't she? But for some reason, Jake was better at it.

She headed out the back door, intending to circle around and meet him at the front. Just as she came upon the corner of the house, she heard Jake's outraged voice.

"Caleb Nathaniel Black! What the he—what in Heaven's name are you doing?"

"Look what I found, Daddy! An ant town! Come and look!"

Once again, Jake had found him first. She thought about rounding the corner to see what mischief Caleb had gotten into that had almost caused Jake to utter a curse in front of him, but decided against it. Unbeknownst to her husband, Bella had eavesdropped on several of their conversations the past three years. Each and every one had been beautiful and touching in its own way, and had only increased her love for the man who owned her heart and soul without even trying.

"What did you do to Mommy's flower?"

There was a short silence.

"I'm practicing my archie-ology. Miss Leeper says that archie-ologists have to dig in the ground to be good at their jobs."

"But…"

Bella smiled as she imagined the wheels turning furiously in Jake's head as to how to respond. They'd decided long ago not to discourage Caleb's natural inquisitiveness by getting mad over every little hole he dug in the yard. Jake had jokingly suggested that their son was actually providing a much-needed service for the mole community: pre-dug houses in ready-to-move-in condition.

"Couldn't you have dug _beside_ the flower instead of completely uprooting it?" Jake asked, and she thought his question was gently scolding, yet appropriate.

"Miss Leeper says that all the _good_ archie-ology stuff is always underneath something else."

Bella was going to have a sit-down with Miss Leeper at the next parent/teacher luncheon. Definitely.

"The flower wasn't pretty anyway."

"Well, you have a point, there," Jake admitted. "It was turning a little brown at the edges. Probably because of the ants. They damaged the roots. Mommy will take care of that, I'm sure."

"She's not going to kill them is she? This is their home, Daddy!"

Bella's heart melted at the sound of his pitiful plea. She felt guilty for even thinking of the tall can of ant spray tucked away in the laundry room shelves.

"No! Mommy wouldn't do that! Of course she's not going to kill them."

"Well, good. 'Cause this is _my_ ant town."

Their conversation stopped, replaced by the sound of metal digging into dirt.

"Do you think they have Spirit Ants, Daddy?"

Jake chuckled softly. "I have no idea, but that's an interesting thought. What would Spirit Ants do?"

"Chase away the mean vampire bugs and protect their ant babies, just like the Spirit Wolves in your story."

"Well, actually ants are more concerned with the queen than the babies. The queen ant is the biggest one and she's a very important ant. Let's see if we can find her."

Conversation stopped once again. Bella saw the scene in her mind as clearly as if she were standing behind them. Caleb would be on all fours, his knees and hands quickly turning that dirty, scuffed color that should be renamed "Kid Brown", while Jake would be hunkered down on the balls of his feet, his thigh muscles flexing with the effort to keep his balance. Their heads would be close together, their dark shocks of short, spiky hair mirroring each other. Two peas in a pod. Her two Spirit Warriors. Her two protectors.

"There she is!" Jake's excited voice broke the silence.

"Wow," Caleb breathed in awe. "She's BIG!"

Jake gave him an abbreviated lesson on ant hierarchy. He explained the queen's function and that she essentially was the boss of their town. "Kind of like Mommy."

"Mommy's prettier, though."

"You got that right." Jake laughed softly.

_Right answer, babe. _

"And the rest of the ants' job is to protect the queen. That's their sole purpose in life," he explained further.

"I protected Mommy the other day. I stomped a spider for her. I didn't want to, 'cause I like spiders, but she was screaming. Is that being a good protector?"

Jake snickered. "In Mommy's case, that makes you a superhero, like Iron Man or the Incredible Hulk."

Caleb giggled.

"Mommy said you saved her once."

Bella's ears perked up. She couldn't believe that Caleb even remembered that impromptu bedtime story.

"I did?" Jake sounded perplexed.

"She said she got lost in the woods and Sam saved her first and then _you_ saved her second. And she said that if you hadn't saved her, I wouldn't be here and you wouldn't be the best Daddy in the whole wide world."

She couldn't even imagine the expression on Jake's face. Would he be upset with her for telling Caleb about how they had finally found their love for each other, even though she'd left out all of the painful details?

"The best Daddy in the whole wide world? She actually said that?"

"Uh huh."

"Hmm, I guess I'm going to have to give Mommy extra smoochies tonight, huh?"

"Super _duper_ smoochies!" Caleb giggled again. This was the kind of silliness between her husband and her son that always left Will and Carlie wondering what happened to the Black gene pool. It simply made Bella smile and her heart fill up with all kinds of love.

"Super duper POOPER smoochies!" Jake shouted triumphantly, which signaled the beginning of the customary tickling battle between father and son. Caleb's screeches mingled with Jake's laughter and Bella was sure the ants were calling upon every Spirit Ant in their midst to come to their rescue.

"You're just a big ole booger!" Jake shouted in between Caleb's giggles and shrieks.

"You're an even _bigger_ booger!" Caleb shouted, giggling hysterically. "A big, green slimy booger!"

"That's it! You're history, buddy!"

Caleb's piercing screams faded away to the front yard as he ran from Jake as fast as his short little legs could carry him. Bella finally emerged from her hiding place and watched Jake chase his son all over the yard, pretending that Caleb was too fast for him and wailing that he was too old to be chasing boogers all over the place.

Finally Jake caught up with him and swung him up and onto his shoulders. Caleb draped his small, gangly legs over Jake's chest and held on with both fists curled tightly into his hair. They saw her at the same time.

"Mommy! I found an ant town while I was digging for T-Rex bones! It's under your ugly flower!"

Jake stopped just a few feet in front of Bella. Caleb's excited voice faded to the background as their eyes met. "I'm the best father in the whole wide world?" Jake asked softly.

Bella nodded and felt tears stinging her eyes. "None better."

Jake swallowed and gave her a small nod. "I love the hell out of you, Bella."

"And I love the hell out of you, too, Jake."

"Hell is a bad word," Caleb said, and shook his head. "You're not supposed to say 'hell' unless you're in church and you're talking about the hell where the devil lives. That kind of Hell is okay, but not the hell that you just said. That's-

"Caleb!"

Jake and Bella shouted his name at the same time and then laughed at their son's thinly disguised ploy to use a curse word as many times as he could without getting into trouble.

"It's the Black gene pool that's to blame for this," Bella stated emphatically.

Jake shook his head and grinned crookedly. "Oh no, don't you even try to blame this on the Blacks. It's that twisted Swan DNA that's to blame."

They smiled at each other.

"You're getting extra smoochies tonight." Jake grinned slyly.

Bella grinned back. "Yeah, I heard…"

*** The End ***


End file.
